Chili Cheese Rice and Another Pie

Greetings for the land of pots and pans!

I'm finishing up my last Fall semester and have been so busy with work I haven't had a lot of time to cook! Last Sunday Cameron and I went to my professor's house for a Christmas party, and so of course I cooked for the occasion! I made a Chile Cheese Rice Casserole and a Blackberry-Apple Pie (my second one!) I ended up having a lot of filling left over, so I made an extra pie for my roommates.

And my professor liked my chili cheese rice so much he asked me for the recipe...

Chile Cheese Rice:

Ingredients:

• 3 cups of cooked rice ( I put in 4 cups because otherwise its just too cheesy)
• 1/2 cup sour cream
• 1 cup chopped scallions (this is about a whole bundle)
• 4-oz can chopped green chiles
• 1 cup shredded cheddar
• 8-oz parmesan
• salt and cayenne to taste (and then more to top off the casserole!)

Directions:
Preheat oven to 450. Mix the cooked rice, sour cream, scallions, green chilies, cheddar, salt, and cayenne together in a bowl. Then in a casserole bowl, butter, and sprinkle parmesan on the bottom. Spread the rice mixture in the bowl and then sprinkle parmesan on the top and dot with butter. I added a bit of cayenne to the top to give it an extra kick. Bake for 20 minutes. A great and easy side dish.

Blackberry-Apple Pie

Ingredients:

• 1 1/2 Tbl lemon juice
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 1/2 lbs tart apples (about 6 apples)
• 2/3 cup plus 1 tablespoon granulated sugar, divided
• 1/4 cup cornstarch
• 2 cups frozen blackberries (not thawed) or fresh
  

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Coat a 9-inch deep-dish pie pan with nonstick spray.

Combine lemon juice and vanilla in a large bowl. Peel, core and cut apples into 3/4-inch chunks, tossing them in the lemon juice mixture as you work. Let the apples soak in the mixture.

Mix 2/3 cup sugar and cornstarch and toss with apples. Add blackberries.

Place pre-made (or homemade, I didn't have time to make my own) pie dough in the bottom of the pie shell. With a rubber spatula, scrape the blackberry-apple filling into pie shell. Cover the top of the pie with the second pie dough. Press together edges of pastry to seal. With the tip of a sharp knife, cut 3 or 4 short slashes to vent steam. Moisten a pastry brush with water and lightly brush top of pie. Sprinkle with the remaining 1 Tbl sugar. Place the pie on a baking sheet with sides.

Bake until crust is golden and filling bubbles, 45 to 55 minutes. Cool on a wire rack for about 1 hour. Serve warm or at room temperature. (Make you bake it unit the pie crust is golden, my crust cracked, so I guess I'll have to keep experimenting so that it won't do that again!)